Eternal Life: Talent Grows with Age-Chapter 330 - 205: Tongling Wood

"This morning, our Fang Family withdrew from our last business outside the city and handed over the Tiger Forest Mountain mine."

Fang Yuan said.

"But looking back, it feels a bit deliberate, doesn’t it?"

"No choice, we can’t just send our people to their deaths, can we?"

"Besides, if too many people die like this, they’ll start to get suspicious." Huang Feng added.

Family feuds have never been easy to manage. There’s simply too much room for manipulation. Take these out-of-town assets—if you can’t hold them, you can always split the benefits and rope in other families.

Of course, this kind of thing is like inviting a wolf into your house. No family would do it unless they’re completely desperate.

So, with their abrupt retreat, it’s inevitable that hostile families are getting suspicious.

Lu Chang’sheng listened as Fang Yuan and the others took turns chatting. He understood perfectly—they just wanted to put a little more pressure on him.

The underlying message was nothing more than, "We’re about to lose all our assets—you can’t keep stalling on the alchemy!"

All these old foxes—none of them would ever urge Lu Chang’sheng to refine pills directly.

They didn’t want to ruin the atmosphere.

But Lu Chang’sheng didn’t mind. Today, Fang Yuan and the rest had all brought materials for the Barrier-Breaking Pill. Altogether, there were just enough for ten batches. If luck was on his side, he could probably manage two or three furnaces’ worth.

"Of course!"

Lu Chang’sheng replied with a grin.

The several old patriarchs didn’t leave—they simply waited at the Lu Mansion for the results.

Lu Chang’sheng, meanwhile, took the materials back to White Cloud Pharmacy to start refining pills.

Several days later, he walked out of Yun’an Institute, a hint of joy on his face.

This time, luck was far better than expected. Ten sets of materials, and he succeeded with four furnaces.

When Lu Chang’sheng returned to the Lu Mansion, the patriarchs could hardly contain their excitement.

They thanked Lu Chang’sheng over and over, then left with the pills for their own families. Since each family had contributed a different amount of materials, they received a different number of pills—but even the one who’d brought the least walked away with three top-grade Barrier-Breaking Pills. With some luck, that might be enough to nurture a late-stage Qi Cultivation cultivator.

Of course, if luck turned sour—like what happened with the Qu Family before—there was still a huge risk involved.

After seeing off the elders, Lu Chang’sheng headed back to the courtyard, where he found Lu Ziyou.

Lu Ziyou was aware of some of Lu Chang’sheng’s plans, but he didn’t agree with them.

The risk was just too high. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"The Zhu Family publicly has three late-stage Qi Cultivators, but in reality, they probably have more. Plus, their old clan leader is at the very peak of late-stage Qi. If he accidentally breaks through, it would be a catastrophic disaster for our Lu Mansion!"

"Foundation Establishment isn’t something you just stumble into by chance," Lu Chang’sheng replied somewhat impatiently.

Still, he wasn’t going to let his guard down.

Pushing these families forward was just another way to eliminate the Zhu Family as a potential enemy.

At the very least, he could use them to buy himself more time.

Now that even the other rival families were getting suspicious, there’s no way the Zhu Family hadn’t noticed something as well.

"They’ll definitely take precautions," Lu Chang’sheng thought to himself.

······

Just like that, half a year flew by. Lu Chang’sheng kept getting congratulatory notes from the other families.

Just simple letters.

Each one with the same brief wording.

The ink seemed to ripple with a faint spiritual light. When Lu Chang’sheng read them, he could almost hear the joy behind the words.

The first to send a letter was the Fang Family.

Patriarch Fang, Fang Shan, had been picked by Fang Yuan to take the Barrier-Breaking Pill. Fang Shan’s foundation was solid and his mentality incredibly steady. Just over a month later, he broke through to Qi Cultivation Level Seven, instantly becoming an elder-like figure in the family.

Under normal circumstances, the Fang Family would’ve held a large banquet. But considering they planned to move against other families soon, they kept things low-key for now.

Next up was the Qu Family.

After days of hesitation, Qu Guang finally chose Qu Feng as their candidate.

Apparently, there was a huge argument with Qu Nian about it.

That’s when Lu Chang’sheng heard that Qu Nian was actually Qu Guang’s son. Normally, for safety, the family referred to him publicly as just another member.

The other three families weren’t as lucky—they burned through all their Barrier-Breaking Pills and still didn’t break through to late-stage Qi Cultivation.

Which meant those three families had to bow their heads, however subtly, whenever Fang or Qu Families came around.

"Five late-stage Qi Cultivator elders, plus the two new late-stage ones—that’s still just seven people. And even counting Nangua, that’s only eight. Not enough!"

Lu Chang’sheng did some rough math.

He planned to make the first move against the Zhu Family. As for the other families, he’d let them sort out their own problems.

After all, as far as Lu Mansion’s enemies went, right now the only real threat was the Zhu Family.

"Shame I’m still short on materials."

It wasn’t like you could just buy top-tier Barrier-Breaking Pill ingredients with spirit stones, either. Most families would hide them away for their own cultivation needs.

With that in mind, he got up and headed out for the Glazed Glass Trading House.

But Liu Yun told him there was still no news about Tongling Wood.

······

Another month went by, then suddenly Liu Yun brought news.

Tongling Wood—there was finally word!

After getting the news, Lu Chang’sheng immediately looked for Liu Yun to ask more.

But after hearing her out, he realized things were about to get tricky.

"What I found out is, over in Liuyun Immortal City, a loose cultivator has information about the Tongling Wood. But the wood itself isn’t in his hands—it’s with some evil cultivator instead."

Liu Yun explained.

"So where’s this evil cultivator?"

"That guy didn’t say. He just mentioned that if you want to know, you’ll have to go together with him. Sounds like there’s some kind of grudge between them." Liu Yun said.